The Constitution clearly gives the power of the purse, and of legislation, to the Congress. As a member of the Senate when `this mess was created’, isn’t he talking about himself?

Of course he isn’t. Congress long ago abdicated all of its responsibilities. As our host pointed out a while ago, most of the rules in the Federal Register that we must obey as law are the result of executive regulatory bodies. Hard social issues are left for resolution in the Supreme Court. When Congress isn’t sniping that the administration isn’t perfect, or that the people are disappointing, it takes up its time renamimg post offices. Is it surprising that members laugh at being asked to read the bills, or maybe even write the bills, before they pass them? They know that they are a joke.

When the 1964 Civil Rights Bill passed, Humphrey famously offered to eat the bill page by page if it contained any mention of quotas.
Five years later, the only defense an employer had to a complaint by the EEOC of `disparate impact’ was to have a policy of statistical hiring, i.e. quotas. The language of the bill was unimportant, as we are not governed by the rule of law.

A republic, if you can keep it. I guess we couldn’t.